Banker demands Rs 1 crore for illegal detainment

The Mumbai and Kota police face a legal battle after they allegedly wrongfully detained a 29-year-old Mumbai-based Chartered Accountant at Cuffe Parade police station pertaining to an alleged dowry harassment case. The victim has now approached the Bombay High Court with a writ petition demanding Rs 1 Crore as compensation and a contempt of court case be filed against the police teams.

Chandra Prakash,29 a senior bank manager in Punjab National Bank was allegedly picked up by Kota police with Cuffe Parade police in tow from his workplace at Cuffe Parade and was kept detained illegally for several hours without conducting a panchanama nor any legal procedure was followed. After frantic calls were made to senior police officers in Mumbai police department, the Kota police realized their mistake and he was let off.

"It is a clear case of contempt of Supreme Court order that accused in the case of harassment to women by husband or in-laws should be first served with a notice and arrest can be made if he fails to co-operate during the investigations", said Nilesh Ojha, counsel for Chandra Prakash and the writ petitioner.

A copy of writ petition submitted in the Bombay High Court on 23 May prays, that Mahila Police Thane in Kota and Senior Inspector of Cuffe Parade should compensate the petitioner Rs 1 Crore for illegal detainment and a case against both respondents should be filed for contempt of court order.

"We demand that a case under sections 220(Commitment for trial or confinement by person having authority who knows that he is acting contrary to law) and 341(wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal code should be registered for harassing my client and detaining him illegally which is against the rights provided by our Constitution", said Ojha.

Chandra Prakash while revisiting the events on that day revealed, "Despite me co-operating with the police investigations they reached my workplace where they defamed me and were treating me as a hardened criminal. They themselves as the law enforcers were breaking the law by keeping me illegally detained. But now I want justice and want the police officers to be punished."

Meanwhile, Mumbai police from their twitter handle tweeted to a query which reads, "We have told Kota police to follow legal procedure. You can ask your lawyer to discuss the case with them."

Suresh Kumar Jogi, one of the respondent in the case, denied the allegations and said, "We had asked him to accompany us for investigation purpose. We have not detained anybody illegally and follow every procedure."

Ghanshyam Meena, Senior Police Inspector, Mahila Police Thana, "We have asked him to co-operate with the investigations which he failed and we will reply to the Bombay High Court regarding the issue."

Rashmi Jadhav, Senior Police Inspector, "We have just shown them the address after the Kota police approached us for help. The case is with Kota police and we are not involved in this incident.